Brewers Minor League Link Report (4/9): W-W-W-Wonderful Evening On The Farm

Do keep in mind comments are always welcome on each day's report. Once you've reviewed each report's action with us, feel free to comment on any of the prospects, position experiments, etc. - your observations are appreciated. While the formal daily report will most often post each early AM (we strive to be ready for your breakfast reading by 7:00 AM Central), we will kick off a mini-informal thread early each day on our Minor League Forum. You'll find the posted lineups there, along with the miscellaneous news of the day. The formal report will now always be here on the BrewerFanatic news page, but something for you farmhand diehards to be aware of.

Hey folks, do you want to see a top-to-bottom report each day, starting with AAA? Or should we occasionally change it up, if the Mudcats played an epic contest, or a Shuckers player had a record-setting performance, for instance. Let us know in the comments!

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Transactions: None for Saturday. Once the affiliates begin their Tuesday through Sunday schedules this week (Mondays off), we'll find Tuesday's will be the heavy transaction days as rosters shuffle.

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Nashville Pre-Game Media Notes

So how are the Sounds getting away with 17 active pitchers on their active roster? And 34 active players overall? Not sure if this will be a season-long rule, or just for April, but Voice of the Sounds Jeff Hem was indicating on a broadcast earlier this week (yeah, I've been sampling quite a bit), that the team's starting pitchers are effectively exempt from being on the team's lineup card on the days when they are not pitching. Is this at AAA only, seems like it. I know a lot of you are true roster and transaction mavens, so keep an eye on that.

Final: Nashville 2, Durham (Rays) 1

Box Score / Game Log

Via the Sounds' site, game details, please review:

Josh Lindblom Stifles Durham in Sounds Victory - Veteran Right-hander Tosses Five Scoreless Innings in 2-1 Win

Lindblom, RHP Hobie Harris and LHP Rex Brothers danced with danger as they walked six over 6.2 innings. But as noted in the game summary, RHP Peter Strzelecki was clutch, and he's off to a nice start after a very strong 2021 when he fanned 71 in 52 innings spent mostly at AA Biloxi. Props to Trevor Kelley for the 1-2-3 save.

Video evidence on Strzelecki (and Jeff's help on pronouncing Peter's last name!)

Video from earlier in the contest - beyond the Tyler White blast (strong dude, didn't seem he got the ideal part of the bat on that), the Sounds' only other two base knocks were Brice Turang's singles, one driving in the team's other run.

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Biloxi Pre-Game Media Notes

Final: Biloxi 6, Pensacola (Marlins) 5

Box Score / Game Log

Via the Shuckers' site, game details, please review:

Lutz' Late Homer Vaults Shuckers To 6-5 Victory - Biloxi Takes Opening Series From Wahoos, Can Go For Sweep On Sunday

Gee, hope the Shuckers save some of this drama for the home fans starting Tuesday, back-to-back intense contests! And yes, a potential sweep, meaning that other than Nashville, the Brewers affiliates all open with three-game series. Then, the steady pattern of six-game Tue-Sun series begins.

Who's on board with 23-year-old Tristen Lutz breaking out in 2022? My goodness, we're so guilty of playing with early-game numbers, but we'd all climb on that train. It'd be sweet for the 34th overall pick out of a Texas high school in 2017 to place himself high on the radar this summer.

Let's just get to the finish - that's the Voice of the Blue Wahoos, Erik Bremer, who you may remember from previous work as an assistant in Biloxi and Colorado Springs. This is his first year as the lead voice in Pensacola.

From earlier in the game, just give us all the Felix Valerio possible, you don't need much wrapping paper.

LHP Andy Otero was effective (2 R, 8 K) in his four innings, sorry to low-light him here, but can we all agree that Pensacola's ballpark location is magnificent?

RHP Abner Uribe's line - 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 2 K, and he can thank RHP Nash Walters for the zero in the run column. Walters, the oft-injured 3rd round pick out of a Texas high school in 2015, could have elected minor league free agency last fall, as he's now in his 8th season with the Crew and hopes to force a 40-man roster decision on them. He won't turn 25 until May.

Ten combined walks, 27 combined K's (Biloxi pitchers fanned 16!), yet at three hours, 17 minutes this game was only 12 minutes longer than the Sounds 2-1 game with six combined hits. 

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Wisconsin Pre-Game Media Notes via their all-encompassing Virtual Press Box

Final: Wisconsin 7, Peoria (Cardinals) 6, ten innings

Box Score / Game Log

Via the Timber Rattlers' site, game details, please review:

Rattlers Welcome Back Baseball with Walkoff Win - Martínez hits RBI single in bottom of the tenth for 7-6 victory as Wisconsin comes back twice against Peoria

Hey T-Rats, you don't have to wait until the 8th inning for that first base hit, my goodness, how did we get to this final score? You just read about it, now watch. As per usual, the Wisconsin production staff does an amazing job with their game action presentations, and we appreciate they include all scoring plays, not just from the "good guys" perspective.

Rattler batters reached base twelve times, four of those belonging to the mercurial and larger-than-life 6'6", 250 lb. Ernesto Martinez, Impressive when one's personality outweighs one's physical presence.

Props to RHP Brady Schanuel for the top pitching line from this game.

25 Photos via the Post-Crescent

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Carolina Pre-Game Media Notes

Final: Carolina 8, Down East (Rangers) 2

Box Score / Game Log

Via the Mudcats' site, game details, please review:

Bello Stays Hot in 8-2 Carolina Victory - Carolina pitchers combined for 17 strikeouts in Saturday's 8-2 victory

There's a few reasons we ask you all to click on each affiliate game summary from their official site (this is still the "Link Report" afer all, despite the new look). First of all, the folks (invariably the team broadcasters) work very hard to put those together. Plus they were on-site for all nine (or more) innings, we can't be. We'll highlight box score nuggets, but you will do yourselves a big favor by reading those official reports for each game, it will greatly add to your perspective of what's happening on the farm.

This was indeed the pro debut for 20-year-old RHP Carlos Rodriguez, a native of Nicaragua drafted in the 6th round out of a Florida junior college last summer. 2021 9th round RHP Brannon Jordan (University of South Carolina) got to pitch away from the heat of Maryvale for the first time, as did LHP Karlos Morales who remarkably spent four summers at the Maryvale complex (not to mention the lost covid season). The 6'3" Morales was drafted in the 25th round out of a California high school back in 2017, that's perseverance!

Two other pitchers saw full-season action for the first time. Undrafted 2021 signee Trevor Tietz and 21-year-old RHP Brandon Ramey, one of the three "lottery tickets" David Stearns received from Philadelphia in the August 31, 2020 David Phelps trade.

Clearly hoping both thrive, but in the big picture, who is the better corner outfield prospect, Hedbert Perez or Hendry Mendez? Let us know what you think and why in the comments.

This low-A lineup did what a lot of low-A lineups do - eight runs on nine hits, nine walks, one HBP, while fanning eleven times. Meanwhile, Mudcat pitchers combined to walk five and plunk two, but as the Mudcat game summary banner proclaimed, also K'd 17!

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Sunday 4/10:

Double-dip in Appleton and early evening action for the Shuckers. Enjoy your matinees!

Organizational Scoreboard including starting pitcher info, game times, MiLB TV links, and box scores